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Many of us are now in the final stages of finalizing the final round of authenticating and submitting our students' final Written Assignments ... (at least, those of us who live by the northern hemisphere IB deadlines).
Finally ! Finally ? A lot has been said and written recently about the 'demise' of the Language Ab Initio and the Language B Written Assignment - or is it the Written Task ? A number of reasons have been given as to why this external assessment has had to go, with the main one being that across the Diploma Programme the IB is doing away with assessments that are not conducted under examination conditions and that are not full research essays. As far as I am aware, the only DP course that will keep a Written Assignment for coursework is the Literature A Higher Level course. The Extended Essay and the ToK essay also persist ... for now ... We may or we may not agree with the reasons that we are aware of, it doesn't really matter. However, the question arises whether the concept of the Ab Initio and the Language B Written Assignment has a place in the new curriculum, whether as a formative internal assessment, a summative internal assessment, a cultural task or a practice and revision tool. Different educators will have different views on this but in my humble opinion, the concept of a Written Assignment that focuses on a comparison between the student's home culture (or the culture in which they live) and one of the target language cultures is a valid way of developing international mindedness and an open mind towards 'foreign' (in every sense of the word) cultures, world views and behaviors. There are a thousand topics that lend themselves to a comparative Written Assignment and we all know that the content of the courses hasn't really changed all that much. Cultural awareness remains not only a strong component of the course, but also one of the main reasons why anyone would acquire a new language in the first place ! I will continue to speak up on behalf of the Written Assignment as a tool to develop cultural understanding, to expose the students to relatively small parts of the target language cultures, to broaden the students' horizons in a fun and creative manner, and to hold on to something good that has been turned into a little ugly duckling for all the wrong reasons. True, I won't insist on some of the formatting, but as far as my courses are concerned, the Written Assignment shall not rest in peace. Let me know which side of the fence you are on !
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Well, if there is one thing that has become a whole lot easier for us teachers of Language Ab Initio and Language B to remember, then it's the fact that the four assessments (yes, IB claims there are only three, but we know what they mean, nudge nudge) are worth 25% of the final grade - each ! That's right - the Productive Skills paper (Paper 1), the Listening Comprehension paper (Paper 2 Part 1), the Reading Comprehension paper (Paper 2 Part 2) and the Individual Oral all count for one quarter of that final IB grade. Easy. Give us a comment if you agree that this will prevent you from getting confused between Language A, Language B, Language Ab Initio, EE, ToK and all your MYP courses ... Tee hee.
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AuthorsWe are practising Language Ab Initio, B and A teachers, examiners and workshop leaders for the International Baccalaureate. We author and publish the “Language Ab Initio Student Workbook”, the various Language Portfolios (for Ab Initio, B and MYP) and the How to Ace Language Ab Initio and Language B series. We are also a language acquisition and mother tongue consultants and tireless advocates for mother tongue entitlement in international education. Beyond our lives as linguists, we travel the world, we publish novels, we practice photography, we play and coach football coach, we write and we read. Archives
September 2019
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